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Wednesday, April 30, 2014

WEB OF STORYLINES

MOVIE
REVIEW:

THE
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2

Review
By:

G.P.
Manalo

Directed
By:

Marc
Webb

Starring:

Andrew
Garfield | Emma Stone | Jamie Foxx |

Dane
DeHaan | Sally Field | Paul Giamatti |

I’ve always thought that the first The
Amazing Spider-Man wasn’t entirely all that “amazing” and it was obvious that
there is definitely room for improvement. But for a sequel, it is a step
backward somehow because of the flaws the film failed to correct from its
predecessor.

PLOT SUMMARY:

After the events of the first film, Peter
Parker (Andrew Garfield) is still haunted by the death of Gwen’s father, and he
learns to move on by graduating high school, distancing himself from his
daughter, Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) and becoming the city’s greatest defender as
Spider-Man. But being Spider-Man has a cost, and it would mean him facing
formidable threats such as Electro (Jamie Foxx), The Green Goblin (Dane
DeHaan), and The Rhino (Paul Giamatti) coming together to defeat Spider-Man,
but Peter has even greater problems as he go deeper to the secrets of his
parents’ cause of death when he was only a child.

PLOT ANALYSIS: C+

Like I said, the
film had its fair share of problems, the same kind they failed to correct from the
last film. The producers of the film wanted the film to be its own universe
like how Disney-Marvel is doing these days; Sony seems to think that building a universe would
mean running through as many characters and plot points as possible as quickly
as possible. The film smothers the narrative as it stuff so much material in one
film that lasts for 2 hours long; it had enough material to make 2 movies.

The other problem is that the film had three villains, a handful of
people feared that Sony is repeating history due to its past attempt. Another result to the clunky narrative is that they are under
developed even though they had a really good set up; Once they suit up, they
exit the movie in a snap and seem that they only exist to get to one fight
scene to the next (granted, they are pretty cool to watch). It is unfortunate
that they under-developed when you have talents such as Dane Dehaan, Paul
Giamatti, and Jamie Foxx; all three who could offer something great for the film
if they were given the right amount of time.

The film finds
its charm when they develop the man behind the mask effectively, even when it's just about two characters simply talking to each other in a scene; this is where
director, Marc Webb truly shines. He gives heart to the chemistry between one
character to the other such as Peter and Gwen’s genuinely well-written
relationship being the strongest point of the film along with his friendship
with Harry, and Aunt May’s mother-like relationship with Peter. Simple scenes
like those were the strongest points of the film.

PRESENTATION
(EXTRAS): B+

The film definitely feels like a comic book
come to life. Marc Webb finally realized the kind of tone it deserves in a
world where a giant lizard man, mad scientists, and an electric fueled man
inhabits New York City. The film is no longer dark and gloomy but booms with
bright colors in each scene giving that comic book feel to it.

Spider-Man actually gets a score this time
around, and it’s all thanks to Hans Zimmer’s helm along with Pharrell Williams
and the Magnificent Six. The music is rather diverse, not only limited in
orchestral music but also putting techno in the mix. Most of the music has its
specifics for each character, for instance Spider-Man would get an orchestra
theme while Electro would get a pseudo-metal vibe (and dubstep). Small details like that are quite clever once you notice them.

The action scenes are a blast to see in the
big screen, whenever it is time to suit up it is easily the best scenes we have
seen Spider-Man in as it showcases his set of powers creatively, resulting to
very entertaining action scenes we have to come to expect in a summer
blockbuster superhero flick.

THE PERFORMANCES: A

The performances
are still strong in this film - at
first I wasn’t in favor with Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker, whenhe
is a better Spider-Man but not a good Peter Parker. As the film humanizes the
man behind the mask, Andrew Garfield does handle both personas of the character
very well as he capture the Spider-Man and Peter Parker we’ve known and loved
in the comics. Emma Stone’s Gwen
Stacy on the other hand is a delight to watch being the best female supporting
character (that I truly care about) I have seen in a comic book film so far.

There
were also some other great performances like Jamie Foxx’s hero-worshipping
introvert, Max Dillion though he
does share a large amount of cartoonish-ly cheesy moments throughout the film, there
were still a couple of scenes where you truly empathize for the character. Dane
DeHaan always plays a genuine villain, a villain where you don’t know when
he’ll snap and when he does you can really tell that he is the kind of guy you
don’t want to mess with. Lastly
we have, Paul Giamatti who is only limited as a cameo throughout the film, for
2 brief scenes he mostly pulls off his best Muppet impression whenever he is
seen.

CONCLUSION:

In the end, the Amazing Spider-Man
2 isn’t entirely amazing as I was expecting it to be nor is
it superior to the last film. It was still an entertaining
popcorn flick. The film may have failed to correct the problems of the
last film as a sequel but the different material it tries to juggle, however it
still makes up a strong string of scenes in this rather clunky narrative.
I left the theater having an impression that this film is rather “pretty okay”
in fact they should’ve called this movie as “The Pretty Okay Spider-Man 2”.